


Home On The Ice

by LadyDrace



Series: Junk Ficlets from Tumblr [117]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Figure Skater Stiles Stilinski, First Meetings, Getting Together, Hockey, Hockey Player Derek Hale, Ice Skating, M/M, POV Derek Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 17:36:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12151533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDrace/pseuds/LadyDrace
Summary: Derek plays hockey in college, and one day his team has to share the rink with a figure skater. That's when things start getting really interesting.





	Home On The Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [merlshmallow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/merlshmallow/gifts).



> [Originally posted on Tumblr](http://ladydrace.tumblr.com/post/152900731101/merlshmallow-answered-your-question-send-me) for Merlshmallow's prompt: "figure skating and ice hockey".
> 
> Unbetaed.
> 
> I know very little about either of those two things, so I googled, and I hope I didn't get too many things wrong.
> 
>  

”Why,” Derek asks flatly, because this kind of news doesn’t deserve inflection.

 

”Because someone fucked up scheduling and booked two things into one time slot,” Coach explains with the look of a man who’s seen it all and is  _done_. ”Despite  _intense_  negotiations,” which Derek takes to mean screaming arguments and possibly a few death threats, ”a compromise was  _not_  found. So we’re sharing the ice for the next five practices.”

 

Protests erupt from the rest of the team, but clearly Coach is at the end of his rope already and orders them onto the ice with copious threats of dismemberment. Derek decides to just roll with it, because when Coach brings out the promises of bodily harm it’s in everyone’s best interest to just go with it.

 

At first they all scatter across the full length of the ice as usual, but Coach is there the next second herding them into what seems to have been designated ”their half”, just as the team they’re sharing the ice with arrives.

 

Except, it’s not a team. It’s just two people, and only one of them is actually one the ice. Derek likes to think he’s a flexible guy, but  _really_?

 

”Coach, are you serious? Come on, we’ve got games coming up, this is important!” Derek argues, and immediately regrets it when Coach blows his whistle literally into Derek’s face. Why does he even  _have_ that thing?

 

”All right, twerps, gather round,” Coach bellows, and Derek dreads what might be coming up next. ”Now listen up. You might think you’re god’s gift to the ice, which you’re  _not_. You might think hockey is the only thing that matters. And you’d be pretty on the nose, as long as you scrape by on grades. But you know what’s more important?  _Sportsmanship_.” Coach looks at them all, eyes going a little crazed. ”Hockey is a sport. You know what else is a sport? Figure skating.”

 

There’s a snort from somewhere in the group, and Derek can feel his soul weeping already from how Coach’s eye twitches. Never a good sign. ”Do my ears deceive me, or did I just hear a snicker? Do you even know what it takes to become an olympic figure skater?” He points angrily behind him where the single person is apparently making use of the ice to warm up. Something the team definitely is not doing. ”You think you guys are training hard? Trust me, the kind of work it takes to make it to the olympics would make you little maggots  _cry_.”

 

It doesn’t look like much to Derek, frankly, but he’s also not an idiot. He knows the odds of him doing any kind of spin or jump are a big fat zero, and that he could never do half of what the figure skater is doing. But he’s also a little offended on behalf of his team, because they do work hard.

 

Coach rants on for long enough that the whole team is starting to shiver before finally being allowed to go back to training and get warmed up. As team captain, Derek does get a lot of complaints during practice about how unfair it all is, but Coach’s word is law, and Derek does his job of keeping the team focused. He’s having a little trouble focusing himself, however, because the skater next to them comes close several times, close enough for Derek to realize to his dismay that the guy is exactly his type, and on one pass the skater even winks at Derek. Screw keeping the team focused, just keeping his own eye on the puck turns out to be challenging.

 

The only good news is that apparently it goes both ways, because Derek can’t help but gravitate towards the middle, and overhears the skater’s coach berate him for ”showing off for the jocks!”

 

By their next training session, Derek is full on staring, and Coach is pulling chunks of his hair out for every puck Derek misses.

 

Third shared training goes differently, because apparently Coach had in a fit of desparation reached out to the ice skater’s coach, and offered to alternate use of the ice for this training. So the team has fifteen minutes to spread out while the figure skater sits on the sidelines, and then the team gets to hit the bench for fifteen minutes after that. Coach claims it can only be good for their uncultured little minds to be exposed to some examples of good balance, but that might partically be brought on by Greenberg stumbling over his stick for the fifteenth time.  

 

Derek naïvely thinks that maybe this time he can actually focus on training, but that only lasts until he passes the figure skater in the stands, spending his time doing stretches and bending himself in half. Derek skates right into Jackson, who screams about how his face could have been ruined for at least five full minutes before it becomes obvious that Derek’s elbow is sprained. So he’s on the bench, holding an ice pack to his arm and wishing he could have made a better impression when the figure skater plops down next to him, pink-cheeked and out of breath.

 

”Hi. Sorry for being blunt about this, but I think you’re really hot, and if I’m not reading this wrong, maybe you’d like to go out sometime?”

 

”Uhhh,” Derek says, shocked stupid, both from the brash come-on, as well as from how impossibly gorgeous this guy looks up close. ”Yeah. I mean. Sure. I’d love to.”

 

The figure skater beams, but then glances at the team, scrambling around on the ice. ”Are you out? I mean, I can totally do the whole secret thing if you need me to.”

 

”Nah. They know I swing both ways. You?”

 

”Out and proud,” the guy says happily, holding out his hand. ”Stiles Stilinski.”

 

”Derek Hale.”

 

Stiles is chatty and restless and slightly rude. Derek wants to jump his bones so badly he has to spend a few minutes thinking of genocide before hitting the showers when practice is over.

 

It’s frankly a blessing when the five shared practices are over, because Derek misses being able to actually play the game, rather than constatly reminding himself not to stare at the gorgeous guy he’s apparently dating now. But if Derek thought it would get easier actually spending time with said guy he’s sorely mistaken. It’s several weeks until Stiles can wrangle a night off for an actual date.

 

They’ve found a few minutes together here and there, but Coach hadn’t been exaggerating. Stiles’ schedule is insane, and Derek feels a little ashamed over his assumptions. But at least Stiles isn’t making light of either. ”Ugh, it’s killing me,” he admits when Derek expresses sympathy for the workload as they share a pizza. ”I just wanna study. I wanna get my degree and have an actual life. I’m good at figure skating, I am, but… I’m not so sure I even  _want_  it anymore.”

 

”You sure it’s not just doubt?” Derek asks, knowing all too well how conflicting it can be to sacrifice things for your goals.

 

Stiles chews slowly, and gives it some thought. ”I don’t think so. I did actually go to the Olympics, you know. Two years ago. Bronze medal.”

 

”Wow, that’s amazing!” Derek gushes, and loves how it makes Stiles smile and squirm.

 

”Thanks. But back then I was so… hungry for it, you know? It was all I wanted. But after I won the medal it’s like… the hunger is sated. Now it just feels like a chore. I think I’ve lost the passion for it.”

 

”Then why not quit?”

 

Stiles shrugs. ”I dunno. Maybe I’m just… I think maybe I’m afraid of looking like a failure, you know? Flunking out.”

 

”I wouldn’t call an olympic bronze medal  _flunking out_.”

 

”Yeah, I know,” Stiles says, and changes the subject. Derek walks him home later, and gets a slow and sweet kiss at the door, which keeps him floating for days.

 

It’s still mostly texting and stolen moments here and there, but Derek is falling hard and fast. He’s not so sure about Stiles, who still seems a little torn between his ambitions and his personal life. But Derek is determined to be the bigger person about this. If Stiles decides to break things off to focus on skating, Derek will accept it. He’ll probably cry on Boyd’s shoulder, but he’d feel infinitely worse if he thought for a moment he’d pressured Stiles to give up his dreams.

 

It’s with some trepidation that he shows up at the ice rink late one night, after a vague text about  _needing to talk_. Stiles is already on the ice, lazily making circles, but he stops and beams as Derek comes in and starts putting on his skates. The smile is comforting, and Derek lets Stiles drag him around the ice for a while, obviously putting off the talk. It’s fine, though. Stiles’ hand feels perfect in Derek’s, and the ice is home to them both. He feels almost perfectly happy here.

 

”So,” Stiles says after what feels like an eternity, and Derek forces his face to remain open and calm. ”I, uh. I had a talk with my coach. About my future. And I’m not gonna go for the Olympics. But…”

 

”But?”

 

Stiles sighs and scrubs a hand through his messy hair. ”The thing is, people have spent money on me. Sponsors and such. For my training and even my studies. I can’t just quit without something to show for it. So I’m gonna aim for nationals instead, and I need to do well.”

 

”Okay. What… what does that mean?”

 

Stiles looks at him, face pinched in worry. ”It means I’m gonna have to spend the next five months training my butt off. I can’t make time for you. Like, at all. And I’m not…” he stops to take a deep breath. ”I’m not gonna ask you to wait for me like some romance novel douchebag. But I’m gonna leave it up to you if you wanna break things off.”

 

Stiles looks like he’s holding his breath, and it takes Derek a few seconds to absorb everything, and realize that Stiles _isn’t_ breaking up with him. ”Oh, thank fuck,” Derek groans, and pulls Stiles in for a kiss that ends up putting them both on their asses on the ice. But it’s fine, it’s amazing, actually, and Derek breathes his promises into Stiles’ slender neck.

 

” _I’ll wait. I’ll wait as long as I have to.”_

 

A few years later, Derek plays his first game as a professional hockey player, and as he steps onto the ice he blows a kiss to Stiles, who’s in the stands holding up his huge sign, saying ”I HEART HALE #14!”

 

”That’s my boyfriend!” he explains joyfully to an opposing player, nodding at the sign in obvious question. The guy gives him a thumbs up, and Derek thinks it’s only appropriate, because  _damn_  he’s a lucky guy.

 

End.


End file.
